Pop Culture Update 3/31/06

Recent pop culture events that hit the headlines or just plain intrigue

Food Addiction?

It’s not that I have no empathy for hefty Wynonna Judd, having fought the fat fight for so many years myself. It’s just that I’m skeptical that taking more calories in than expended in physical energy is an addiction. In that, hold on before unleashing the compassion police, addiction is a syndrome that involves a compulsion to engage in behaviors caused by some sort of physiological dependency. All animals have a physiological dependency on food and that’s a fact.

Continuing on with the logic, it’s possible that a physiological dependency only on foods that have excess calories is plausible. If denial of such foods resulted in severe pain, possibly death. Which is the case with a heroin addiction but not, go with me here, with an “addiction” to strawberry shortcake.

Whatever the case and whatever a lack of control and discipline is called nowadays, we wish Wynonna Judd well in her endeavor to rid herself of her “need for food” disorder.

We note, with a wry smile, that as part of Judd’s “rehabilitation” she was forbidden from the very foods she loves.

Country star Wynonna Judd has tackled her food addiction problems head on –
by spending 42 days in rehab.

The singer checked into the Shades of Hope clinic in Buffalo Gap, Texas, on
January 8 after realizing her constant need for food was a disorder.

Judd has since lost 30 pounds and she’s now determined to live a healthier
life.

She says, “I just didn’t want to come into 2006 like I had so many years of
just being so tired. I just wasn’t able to really take care of myself like I
needed to and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

“(Going into rehab) was like going to college and learning why it is such an
addiction. I learned about myself … why I do the things I do. We are so
distracted by so much in life. I slowed down to a pace where I could think
thoughts, feel things.”

Judd admits the rehab experience was tough – she was forbidden from
snacking on the things she loves.

Is Skin From Dead Chinese Prisoners in Your Make-Up?

We’re not making this up. And that Chinese cosmetics company’s (un-named) spokesperson is anything but clear on whether the process of using the skin of dead prisoners for its make-up line is under research or currently part of their smashing peach blush.

The company’s “agent” does say, with a quip, that he has no idea why anyone would be upset about this practice as such as using the skin from condemned convicts was not worth making “such a big fuss about.”

First, the quote says the prisoners had been shot. As with a gun. We don’t know what sort of justice they may have received. China is well-known for jailing, perhaps shooting, dissidents. Second, the ultimate depravity, way beyond Google blocking Chinese ISP’s from accessing sites with references to freedom and other nasty vocabulary, is for western women, ever in search for everlasting beauty, to use make-up in any way altered, aided or abetted with the skin of dead Chinese prisoners. This whole thing has an inhumane and uncivilized aspect to it that should not be encouraged.

A Chinese cosmetics company has been using skin taken from the bodies of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, a London newspaper reported.

An agent for the company informed customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they had been shot.

The agent said some of the company’s products have been exported to Britain, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts was “traditional” and nothing to “make such a big fuss about,” the Guardian reported In addition to ethical concerns, there is the potential risk of infection from the harvested skin products.

The company was not identified by name for legal reasons and it is unclear whether collagen made from the skin of prisoners was in the research stage or in actual production.

“A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoners and aborted fetus,” the agent was quoted as saying. The material, he said, was being bought from “biotech” companies based in Heilongjiang Province and was being developed elsewhere in China.

He suggested that the use of skin and other tissues harvested from executed prisoners was not uncommon. “In China it is considered very normal and I was very shocked that Western countries can make such a big fuss about this,” he said.

Dick Cheney’s “Suite” Demands

Rock stars and various other celebrities regularly broadcast their hotel requirements in advance of visits for performances in faraway regions. Some require only specific M&M colors are to be provided and bath water must always be Evian.

This past week all the scoop was the release of VP Dick Cheney’s requirements for hotel rooms.

The SmokingGun.com obtained an advance copy of Cheney’s list of hotel accoutrements from a loyal member of Cheney’s staff and goodness to read it one would get bored.

An actual picture of Cheney’s advance notice is provided in the link above. It includes such as 4 cans of Diet Sprite, a carafe of coffee, temperature of the suite at a cool 68 degrees, and goodness, a bed. Oh, and all TV’s must be tuned to Fox News. Heh.

The document, prepared by the vice president’s advance team, was obtained by TSG after it was provided to a hotel employee prior to a Cheney visit. When we asked Cheney spokesperson Jenny Mayfield about the document’s reference to gifts that hotels might leave in the suite for the vice president, she told us she was unable to address that question since she had not seen the “downtime requirements” rider (she asked for a copy, which we declined to provide in advance of its publication here). At our source’s request, we’ve blacked out the handwritten name and Washington, D.C. phone number of a Cheney staffer. As for the notations regarding extra lamps, specific newspapers, and a carafe, it is unclear whether they were added by an advance team staffer or a hotel official. (1 page)

Katrina, the Dog, Honored for Saving Life During Hurricane

There’s not much good news coming from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But the tale of the Labrador retriever, now named Katrina, saving the life of a man by pulling him from flooding waters to higher ground, is a heart-warming one.

All hail to man’s best friend.

From the GrandparentsRus email list:

A Labrador retriever who saved a man from drowning in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina received a standing ovation on Saturday night at an awards dinner attended by leading animal rights supporters.

The dog, now called Katrina, was brought on stage and named guest of honor at the 20th annual Genesis Awards, given by the Humane Society of the United States to those who help advance the cause of animal rights.

Katrina the dog was featured on a report from Los Angeles television station KCAL. The man she rescued told how the black dog helped pull him from the flood to higher ground and credited her with saving his life.

WAPO Right Wing Blogger Quits Amidst Fury

The story of Ben Domenech, recruited by the WAPO to write for a conservative blog the vaunted newspaper would sponsor, rages on. This story was covered more extensively by Blogcritic Scott Butki.

First, the notion of the Washington Post sponsoring a conservative blog is big news right there. Although I think it’s a fine idea, I must wonder if this isn’t a preliminary attempt by the ancient print media to recruit people of conservative thought that it can’t find within its own staff. It is also an indicator of the print media’s attempts to get out in the Blogosphere and become part of the national discourse swirling around them but not covered in their daily newspapers.

So the WAPO goes and recruits a blogger of conservative idealology and the guy has an extensive history of plagiarizing the work of others! Don’t believe Domenech’s lament that the left-wing bloggers would go after him, as if he is as innocent as the driven snow. The evidence against Domenech is very damning. The man had to know it.

Let’s hope the WAPO doesn’t give up on this project and goes out to find another conservative blogger to lead their conservative blog site. If they look hard enough they might find a fine female conservative blogger who has never plagiarized a thing in her life.

In his first public comments since resigning earlier today as a blogger for washingtonpost.com, Ben Domenech says his editors there were “fools” for not expecting an onslaught of attacks from the left.

“While I appreciated the opportunity to go and join the Washington Post,” Domenech said, “if they didn’t expect the leftists were going to come after me with their sharpened knives, then they were fools.”

Domenech has been under a steady stream of criticism since washingtonpost.com launched the new blog, “Red America,” on Tuesday. Domenech, an editor at Regnery Publishing (a sister company to HUMAN EVENTS), was accused of plagiarism by several left-wing blogs.

Lee Greenwood and Other Celebrities to Entertain the Troops

There is no greater song, by me, than Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be An American.” I loved that song long before it was cool to do so. In a bow to Mr. Greenwood’s efforts to lift the morale of our mighty fighting army, we note that he and others will be going overseas to do just that.

Joining Mr. Greenwood will be country-rockers Restless Heart, New England Patriot Cheerleaders, comedian Dick Hardwick and musicians from the Band of the U.S. Air Force Reserve, the U.S. Air Forces in Europe Band, the Band of the Pacific and the United States Air Force Band.

Called the Patriotic World Tour, the group will perform at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey; Kunsan AB, Korea; Kadena AB and Misawa AB, Japan; Hickam AFB, Hawaii; and at least three deployed locations in Southwest Asia.

The Dixie Chicks Try It Again

They’ll not be singing with the Patriotic World Tour referenced above. That would be too much.

I chuckle as I remember the endless debates on the “fairness” of country-western radio stations across the fruited plains yanking any songs from the Dixie Chicks from their play list. As if the pundits have any control on such decisions of private companies who will suffer loss of audience for such decisions with no need for commentary from the elite who condemn this action as an affront to free speech.

Heh.

One of this singing trio told a foreign audience that she was ashamed that President Bush was from her home state of Texas. Now go with me on this: a country-western music audience is not likely to take kindly to this kind of sentiment, especially when this brave singer didn’t have the courage to say it on her own shores.

Kinda like Barney spouting about how he hates kids and thinks they all should be shot.

Even with all the pontificating from the elite pundits about fairness and free speech, well has anyone heard much from the Dixie Chicks lately?

Not to fear. They’re trying it again and it’s back to the same old song. Their next song is said to be autobiographical, titled “Not Ready to Make Nice”.

Good luck you girls. The pundits will take your side yet again but silly Americans, they’ll still not buy your records. And no one can make them.

But the Chicks’ new single, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” is now in rotation in several major markets, pushing it to No. 36 on Billboard’s country singles chart after its first full week of airplay. Other stations, however, have been slower to embrace it.

“I think a lot of people are in a wait-and-see mode,” said Wade Jessen, director of Billboard’s country charts. “The next couple of weeks are really going to tell the tale.”

Maines told a London audience on the eve of the war in Iraq that the group was “ashamed” the president was from their home state of Texas.

…Maines later said she regretted the phrasing of her remark, but remained passionately against the war.

Kudos to Semper Fi, however Lee Greenwood’s song is titled “God Bless the U.S.A.”
Proud to be an American is a verse from the song. Many people do the same thing when referring to the song. But either way, I too, am Proud to be an American.